Silent Sentinels at Center of Lithuanian Debate on Bygone Era

VILNIUS, Lithuania — Watching over one of this city’s busiest thoroughfares are the sentinels of a loathed regime.

The statues of Red Army soldiers, workers, farmers and young scientists
on Green Bridge, spanning the Neris River in the center of the city, are
the last major monuments on public display here that still trumpet
Communism, an ideology rejected by Lithuania more than two decades ago
when it became the first part of the Soviet Union to declare
independence.

With their shirts pushed against their broad torsos, and coats and
skirts billowing around muscular legs, the statues in the mode of
Socialist Realism have stood firm against the political storms that have
plagued the nation’s capital. They have been less successful resisting
the ravages of time. After more than six decades in the open, the iron
is pockmarked and rusted. One soldier is held together by bolts and
braces. A young scientist’s back is marred by a large fissure...